LittleBigPlanet 2 Message Board older than one year ago

Greetings Sackboys and Sackgirls. We’re back to bring you regular weekly updates from the world of LittleBigPlanet, including news, community updates, major announcements, or just fun insider tidbits.

LittleBigPlanet 2 now $39.99, tell a friend

Forgive us for sounding like a late-night infomercial, but…now for an amazing low price of $39.99, you can own LittleBigPlanet 2, and experience a whole new world that millions of people love, plus discover over 5.2 million user-generated games! All with Sackboy at your side! If you haven’t picked up LBP2…what are you waiting for!

LittleBigPlanet 2: Now Move-enabled

Earlier this week, many of you downloaded the latest free update for LBP2, but did you know you can NOW control your Sackboy with a Move controller in one hand and a Navigation controller in another? Check out the video below to see another fun way to play LBP2.

And while you get comfy with the all new Move controls, be on the lookout for the upcoming LittleBigPlanet 2 Move Pack, available on the PlayStation Store on September 13th – not long!

Disney Pixar’s Toy Story Packs on the PlayStation Store!

If you’ve been asleep for the past few weeks, you might’ve missed our release of five different DLC packs featuring new levels and costumes of your favorite cast of characters from the Toy Story franchise. To infinity and beyond! Be sure to visit the PlayStation Store and pick these up today.

And for a limited time, be sure to download the free “World Peace” costume. Get it before its gone. The costume, I mean…

Question of the week – What’s your favorite Sackboy costume?

This week, I was lucky enough to see LittleBigPlanet 2's upcoming Move Pack in action, a substantial DLC initiative for LBP2 that's coming this September. And during the presentation, you could easily see just how excited Media Molecule is to unleash this Move Pack on the world, an update that enables PlayStation Move support for LBP2 both in terms of play and creation...

A few weeks ago, our Sid Shuman delivered an in-depth report on LittleBigPlanet 2’s upcoming Move Pack. In short, the Move Pack adds a wealth of new play styles, game genres, and imaginative new Story levels. And it even gives the game’s celebrated Create mode a major shot in the arm.

This morning in Cologne, Germany we ran into a couple of Media Molecule members at breakfast (the pastries were delicious). We asked if they’d be interested in running us through the new tools on camera. Media Molecule Level Design Lead Kengo Kurimoto stepped forward with a quick demo.

How cool was that cel-shaded Sackboy? That’s one of six new costumes based on iconic art, and it’s included when the Move Pack drops next month.

The folks at LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule have proven time and time again that their brains don't work in quite the same way as everyone else's. Take, for example, John Beech: Though most normies would elect to bring their kayaking trip to a close after an hour or two, John has decided to row his plastic vessel around the entire circumference of the United Kingdom. It's a mind-searing 2,450-mile trip that will take him two months to complete; and he's doing it all for a good cause. (Naturally!)

You can check Beech's progress on Media Molecule's site, and sponsor his attempt by donating money to GamesAid, a UK-based organization which distributes funds to other, smaller charities. We'd also suggest that you wish him luck on his sojourn, but we're not sure about the quality of the Wi-Fi on his tiny boat.

Whenever downloadable content comes out, there's the question of whether or not you should buy it. Does it add more of what you love, take the game to new heights, or is it just a cash-in on a title you already own? I've put the LittleBigPlanet 2 Toy Story DLC through the wringer, and found tha...

As if the Toy Story universe wasn't endearing and heartwarming enough, Pixar's plastic pals will be upping the adorable ante by donning sackboy skins and setting foot on LittleBigPlanet 2. Come August 8, Buzz Lightyear, Slinky Dog, Rex, and Hamm costumes will be available individually for $1.99, or as a toy-chest of memories for $5.99.

Costumes aren't the only thing The Claw managed to grab however, as a Toy Story Level Kit will also be available for $5.99, featuring 9 new levels and 2 new music tracks, as well as materials, decorations, stickers, and an Alien costume exclusive to the pack. To quote a great philosopher: "OOOOOOOooooooo."

If LittleBigPlanet 2 wasn't cute enough for you already, check out the chompers on Sackboy in a Buzz Lightyear costume. Next Wednesday -- Aug. 3, 2011 -- LittleBigPlanet 2 is getting two Toy Story packs. One contains costumes for turn Sackboy into Slinky, Hamm, Rex and Buzz Lightyear. The other is a level kit that grants you nine new levels, five new materials and a slew of stickers and decorations. Both packs will set you back a cool 5.99/US $5.99/AU $9.95 a piece...

Formally announced at PlayStation’s E3 2011 press conference, the upcoming PlayStation Move Pack for LittleBigPlanet 2 will greatly expand the game’s already prodigious creation suite and add countless new gameplay variants. Based on my hands-on time, PlayStation Move support radically evolves the gameplay possibilities of LittleBigPlanet 2, whether it’s flinging and manipulating objects using the new Brain Crane power-up, creating outlandish Move-focused minigames from scratch, or animating characters and props by recording your PlayStation Move gestures.

“It’s the biggest update we’ve ever done,” Media Molecule’s Level Design Lead Kengo Kurimoto told me during a guided tour of the update last week in New York City.

When the Move Pack hits PSN this September, LBP2 owners will find six new Story levels in a Move-focused mini-campaign that picks up where LBP2 left off. One of the most significant gameplay enhancements comes as a potent new power-up called the Brain Crane. Like a telepathic revamp of the Power Gloves, the Brain Crane enables Sackboy to pick up and manipulate objects with nothing but the power of his tiny sawdust mind. You aim the Brain Crane by aiming the PlayStation Move and grab an object by pulling the trigger. Once the object is firmly in your grasp you can tug, lift, or wrench it to your heart’s content. The Brain Crane opens up inventive gameplay opportunities: yanking open weighted gates to solve puzzles, tugging spring-loaded platforms to make high jumps, or flinging your co-op comrade into a magma pit because…well, just because.

PSB: How early in the production of LittleBigPlanet 2 did you think about PlayStation Move support?
Kengo Kurimoto, Level Design Lead, Media Molecule: “We were very aware of it. It would’ve been nice to include it in LittleBigPlanet 2 from the start, but time constraints made that difficult. So we made Sackboy’s Prehistoric Moves as well, which was a demo to show what we could do with PlayStation Move. But the LittleBigPlanet 2 Move Pack is the full shebang…It took a lot of iteration. We had so many ideas…we went through and picked the best of them for the Move pack”

Sackboy’s six-level Story is orbited by a constellation of Move-enabled minigames that leverage the Move in wildly different ways. In my favorite minigame “Fast Food,” I tilted and twisted the PlayStation Move in order to guide a ball through an elaborate maze studded with traps and gadgets. The tilt control felt vastly more responsive and consistent than similar labyrinth games I’ve played on mobile phones, while the arcadey mechanics and chirping audio made it feel like a slower-paced game of Pachinko played with one ball.

I was also impressed by “Defence Mechanism,” a simple tower defense game that leveraged the Move’s precision cursor functions. A horde of enemies slowly advanced to the center of the screen and my helpless Sackbot buddies. Using the Move, I erected electrical barriers by placing lightbulbs into sockets strewn around several enemy paths. “It gets fiendishly difficult later,” Kurimoto cautioned me…and he wasn’t kidding.

I also played a deceptively simplistic puzzle game that showed shades of Rube Goldberg called “The Tail of Claude the Field Mouse.” The goal is simple: land a ball in a cup at the bottom of the screen by moving levers, tilting platforms, and arranging other objects. In a multiplayer-focused party game, I competed with Kurimoto to line up colored squares and detonate them. After only a few minutes of gameplay, it was clear to me that the Move Pack open up quite a few new gameplay genres that wouldn’t be practical when played with an analog stick. “For these kinds of games,” Kurimoto noted, “being able to move the cursor quickly and accurately is key. And the Move is sophisticated, with a lot of sensitive sensors.”

The fan-favorite Create mode is also getting a big overhaul to tap into Move’s motion capabilities. First things first, though. Using the PlayStation Move in the Create mode won’t allow you to magically draw platforms or geometry at will — for that level of ease, you’ll have to wait for LittleBigPlanet to make its touchscreen-friendly PS Vita debut. Instead, what you’ll get is a heap of potent new tools that tap into every command that Move supports: pointing, rotating, twisting, tilting, shaking, swinging, and practically anything else you can think of.

The key lies in the Moveinator, modeled off LBP2’s Controlinator in that it enables you to assign actions to every button and function of the PS Move — buttons, tilting, pointing — using a kid-friendly visual programming style. Kurimoto demonstrated the Moveinator flexibility by building a working, steerable cardboard rocketship (complete with laser cannon!) in less than 30 seconds. “One of the most powerful things about LittleBigPlanet 2 is the intercompatibility of the tools,” Kurimoto said. “They all work with each other.”

Other details abound. A new Move Cursor gadget will make lightgun-style games a breeze to design, the Move Recorder function enables you to record a gesture and apply it to any object (digital puppeteering, anyone?), and a Sticker Creator mode turns your Move into a paint brush for designing custom art.

After my demo ended, I was left with the feeling that I had only scratched the surface of what will be possible with LBP2’s Move Pack when it hits PSN this September. What new feature are you most interested in experimenting with? Leave your top picks in the comments!

Apart from an iOS port, ChuChu Rocket hasn't seen much love this generation. Until now, that is, thanks to a new ChuChu Rocket level for LittleBigPlanet 2. Created by someone calling themselves Hymanator, it's a pretty good recreation of Sega's classic puzzler (though perhaps not quite as cute).

#watchthis Making video games is an incredibly lengthy, detailed and technical process. It would be impossible to visualise all the code that goes into one without being some kind of omnipotent being. Unless you're watching this video. More »

In the wake of the news that LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule would be taking a break from the LBP franchise comes news from the PlayStation Blog that new LittleBigPlanet 2 DLC is incoming. And what's exciting about this particular DLC is that much of it revolves around Final Fantasy VII...

Having created two entries in a series that has spawned millions of levels, it seems Guildford-based developer Media Molecule is considering a vacation from LittleBigPlanet for its next project. During a talk at the Gamelab 2011 conference in Barcelona (attended by Edge), studio director Siobhan Reddy said, "We're stepping away from LittleBigPlanet to focus on some new ideas."

That doesn't mean the team's leaving the franchise behind entirely. After all, they're still working on the beefy Move update for LittleBigPlanet 2. Frankly, we think that desire to move on is pretty reasonable, considering the game they created nearly counts as an infinite number of games. We've contacted the studio for more information about their Next Next Big Thing.

LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule is "stepping away" from their famed franchise for a shot at something new, Executive Producer Siobhan Reddy has stated...

You keen-visioned PlayStation.Blog readers are bound to know that the LittleBigPlanet 2 PlayStation Move DLC was officially announced at the E3 PlayStation press conference (huzzah!). You were no doubt left with questions around what it does, how it works and what marvels will be possible once our army of LBP creators get their hands on it.

In a nutshell, the PlayStation Move Pack lets you create levels with (and for) the PlayStation Move motion controller, and it includes a set of levels built by Media Molecule to make your creative juices juicier. LBP has always been all about communities creating and sharing, so rather than show you our 200-slide marketing presentation, I’ll hand you over to Andrew, AKA Chimpanzee, creator extraordinaire and editor of the splendid Rocket Cheetah, for enlightenment…

Back in May I was lucky enough to be invited to the hallowed grounds of Mm Towers to check out the new LittleBigPlanet 2 features they were working on and hang out with some well-known Creators to see what they could do with them. We all knew that Media Molecule were working on an update to the game, introducing brand new tools which make use of the PlayStation Move motion controller, but what we saw was so much more than LBP 2 with added ‘waggle’.

15 members of the community from as far afield as the USA and France descended on Media Molecule’s Guildford studios and to kick things off we were given a brief demonstration of some of the features of the Move Pack.

Looking back, I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised by how much was being given to creators – after all, Media Molecule aren’t exactly known for doing things by halves. Aside from features that people are expecting, the Move Pack also includes a wealth of amazing new gadgets and tweaks which Creators have either been asking for forever or don’t even know that they need yet, but will soon wonder how they ever did without.

First up was the Manipulator, a power-up which can be dropped into a level to instantly enable Move gameplay. It works just like other power-ups that you’re already familiar with; It’s equipped when a player walks over it and can be removed with the power-up remover. With the Manipulator, the player aims by pointing the Move motion controller and can pick up, move around and carry grabbable objects using the trigger. It has a set range (similar to that of the grappling hook) indicated by a translucent orb around Sackboy.

The Moveinator is the PlayStation Move’s equivalent of the Controlinator. As well as all the standard buttons, it gives Creators access to all of the Move’s sensors: Gyroscopes for rotation and tilt on all and the accelerometers to detect up. down, left and right movement. Anyone who’s used the Controlinator in their levels will find the Moveinator’s circuit board very familiar. All of the outputs can be wired-up to Mover logic to allow the player to control any object directly.

Combine the Moveinator with the Move Cursor and you’ve got instant point and shoot gameplay. Just plonk one of these new logic chips down on the Moveinator’s circuit board and you’re given a reticule which you can aim with the PlayStation Move. You can customize the pointer to be any sticker you like and you can even tweak a range of options to have it change color or even switch to a completely different graphic when it hovers over specific objects.

To illustrate how some of the new features could be used, we were shown a few of the MM-made levels that’ll be included in the downloadable pack. It’s the largest piece of DLC that Media Molecule have released so far and the variety of gameplay is bound to inspire Creators to come up with even more exciting and original ideas. The main story levels consist mainly of puzzle/platformers where you play using with a DualShock or Sub-controller in one hand and the PlayStation Move in the other – a control scheme that was surprisingly easy to get used to. But the mini games are where I was really blown-away. One was a Labyrinth-style game where you had to tilt the Move to guide a ball through a maze-like track. In another, you had to use the Move Cursor to arrange objects, conveyer belts and bounce pads on a board to guide a dumb Sackbot from one side to the other.

Overwhelmed? I was. But grab a cup of coffee and take a deep breath because we aren’t even nearly done yet!

Next we we shown some of the smaller but equally pleasing new tweaks and tools. Firstly, Media Molecule have been listening and have delivered on a much-requested feature: Multipliers on Score Givers! Huzzah! You can even tweak how often the score is multiplied and by how much. They’ve also introduced Speed and Rotation Sensors which output if and how much an object is moving, which I’m sure will be music to many Creators’ ears. There’s also a new Slicer Tool. This works in a similar way to the Corner Editing Tool but allows you to pick any two points on the edge of a shape and slice it in two – a big time-saver.

Yet another new tool is the Move Recorder – a new logic chip which records the fluid motion of the Move controller. This allows Creators to give realistic, organic behavior to any object and anyone who’s used Sackbots’ “Act” function will instantly recognize how it works.

Well, that’s about it. Oh wait, no it’s not!

Just a small thing really, no big deal, it’s just that LittleBigPlanet 2 now has a freakin’ paint studio! The fully-featured Sticker Creator takes you to a whole new interface where the Move controller is your paint brush. Excuse me while I gush here for a moment but it really is no exaggeration to say that the artistic types among you will be able to create fully-fledged masterpieces with this. There’s a selection of brush types, shapes and colors to choose from and you can also change the brushes opacity, allowing you to blend several colors together to get that precise shade that you’re after. You could also take any existing sticker and use it as a brush or stamp. I used it to make a rather lovely ocean of bright yellow rubber ducks but you could of course get a little more creative with it and compose hundreds of different stickers together into something incredible

The paintings you make can then be used as stickers in-game, shared in prize bubbles or exported in high-resolution to the XMB.

With all these awesome new stickers you’ll be making, you’ll want a way to display them in their full glory in your levels. Mm has you covered, yet again, with the new Sticker Panel material. This mysterious new substance is magical; draw out a block of it in Create mode and as soon as you stick a sticker to it, it becomes completely invisible, leaving only the sticker behind. Sticker Panels behave in a similar way to the Hologram material in that it has no physical properties, can pass through other objects and can be stacked on top of one another in the same layer. However, unlike Hologram material, a Sticker Panel doesn’t affect the sticker’s color or opacity… unless you want it to of course.

Phew! That about does it for my ‘brief’ round-up of the LBP 2 Move Game Jam. It was a truly amazing to see some master Creators in action, let loose with some new toys. I really cannot wait to see what the rest of the community does with them.

A huge thank you to Spaff, Tom and everyone at Mm for making it happen and to everyone who was there on the day for letting me tap them on the shoulder every 10 minutes with a curious “Whatcha dooin’?”

This fall, Media Molecule is adding Playstation Move support to LittleBigPlanet 2, meaning you'll finally be able to twist nobs and turn cranks with actual movements in order to get your Sack Boys from start to finish in each level. And while that's pretty cool, it's really only a fraction of what t...

LittleBigPlanet 2 already features some levels designed specifically for the PlayStation Move, but Media Molecule is further integrating the peripheral with a DLC pack. Featuring five story levels, and seven sub-stories, the DLC doesn't radically alter the controls, but does introduce a new tool called the Brain Crane...

#watchthis More than four million levels have been created by the LittleBigPlanet 2 community, but few-if any-are like this: A first-person shooter apparently set inside a mecha suit. More »

#ps3 Since its release in January, LittleBigPlanet 2's community has created more than four million levels for the PS3 platformer. The number is exactly 4,141,742, in fact. More »

We're pretty sure that if you added up all the levels of all the games ever released throughout the fullness of history, the total sum wouldn't measure up to LittleBigPlanet 2's latest achievement. Its total number of playable, user-contributed levels has broken the four million mark.

Media Molecule is doing its part for the Play for Japan campaign, auctioning off a few rare pieces of original concept art for LittleBigPlanet, along with signed copies of its sequel. There are four sketches up for grabs on the auction block, each of which show the evolution and development of the franchise's floppy, stitched protagonist, Sackboy. Each piece comes with a copy of LBP2 with an extremely limited edition cover slip signed by the entire Media Molecule team.

Bidders can also try to grab a super rare, in-game crown costume piece for their Sackperson -- a prize usually only distributed as prizes for Media Molecule contests. If you'd like to get involved and grab a piece of LittleBigPlanet history in the process, check out Media Molecule's eBay page.

Is there really such thing as too much Sackboy? Of course not! This week’s update has tons of Sackboy images so be warned!

Our LBP Playlist
Here’s a few of levels we’ll be playing this weekend…

Catch a Sackboy! (Funny Movie) – by Sickivionkey

Dance Dance Resolution – by KirbyCool

Plants vs. Zombots – by Foggles

The LittleBigCreation
In case you’ve missed it, we’re creating a “make.believe” level over at the Facebook/Sony site. Drop in and help us decide on this weeks poll – Storyline.

Sackboy Gallery
Since LBP2′s release, community fan art has been pouring in. Check out the latest user-created artwork featuring our own knit hero.

DeviantArt “Design your level” semi-finalists!

GameArtisans.org 3D modeling challenge results (reported by of LittleBigLand).

More home-made Sackboy Costume awesomeness.

LBP communal goodies
Everyday, we discover tons of LBP goodness online. Here’s a recap of of the latest videos, podcasts, stories, to keep you busy over the weekend.

Mm Podcast #5 – User Interface discussions and more.

LittleBigPlanetorials – Best tutorials we’ve seen online.

LittleBigPodcast 109

…and stay tuned next week for some BIG DLC announcements!

Though the handful of promotional videos for Sony's NGP have featured footage of a handheld version of Media Molecule's latest, LittleBigPlanet 2, the game's developer and publisher have remained mum about the series' next on-the-go installment. However, a recent hiring notice on the studio's front page gives us hope: The Guildford-based outfit is currently looking for a graphics programmer to work on a new title, which will land "on a portable platform."

It wouldn't be the first time the handcrafted platformer made its way to a handheld -- that would be SCE Cambridge Studio's LBP for PSP -- but the possibility of a totally in-house iteration of the franchise on Sony's next portable is enough to send shivers of excitment coursing through our entire body. We've contacted Media Molecule for a comment!

Grab a caffeinated beverage and fire up your PlayStation 3, as the free LittleBigPlanet 2 community level pack is now available for queuing up on LBP.me. In case you missed our announcement post, we'd like to remind you that this "Hansel & Gretelbot" pack was hand-crafted by some of the LBP community's finest -- the levels promise "full story, cut scenes, voice acting, original score, and lots of prizes to collect."

In addition to announcing the release of Hansel & Gretelbot, PlayStation Blog has detailed this past Monday's 1.01 patch for LBP 2. A mess of fixes were implemented in the update, most notably for some crashing problems and issues with LBP 1 DLC costumes. Check out the complete patch notes just after the break.

It’s here! Hansel & Gretelbot!

Last week we shared some cool news about “Hansel & Gretelbot” – a community-made level pack for LBP 2. Well, here’s some more cool news about “Hansel & Gretelbot” – it’s all ready for you to start playing! Here’s Spaff from Media Molecule with more details…

The Community-made Level Pack Hansel & Gretelbot is out now! For those who didn’t see it last week, Hansel & Gretelbot is a completely community made pack of 7 playable levels, furnished with a full story, cut scenes, voice acting, original score, and lots of prizes to collect too! It’s a might achievement, and hopefully one that will inspire others to do the same.

It’s completely free and no need to download, just head over to this LBP.me page and queue up the first level!

The H&G team put together this set of awesome wallpapers to download for your PS3, plus you can read an interview with some of the creators over on LittleBigLand, where you can also download a fourth wallpaper!

On behalf of the guys, we hope you enjoy Hansel & Gretelbot, and please join us in congratulating them on their creation. May there be many more to come!

Congratulations to the whole Hansel & Gretelbot team on creating something so impressive and ambitious – it’s an amazing example of what’s possible in LittleBigPlanet 2. I hope you all have fun playing it!

Codename: “Cupcake”

Earlier this week, a game update for LittleBigPlanet 2 was released. Codenamed ‘Cupcake,’ it fixes a number of issues that were making some players’ experience of LBP 2 insufficiently Sack-tastic. Head over here for a full list of updates.

Must-Plays of the Week

“Fist of the Craft Earth”

Gevurah22 is back with his complete version of his popular game from the pre-launch beta.

“Soda Blob – Retro Adventures”

Check out this platforming masterpiece by Sylzoid with a some creative gameplay mechanics.

Unsung Levels of LBP2

We recently discovered Karl Koekbe’s recent series of articles highlighting “Unsung Levels of LBP2.” Click on over to find some great levels and awesome write-ups.

On the PS Store

With the recent release of Marvel vs Capcom 3, we can’t stop thinking about all the characters and started playing LBP in Marvel & Street Fighter costumes. You say you don’t have them? Well you better head to the PlayStation Store and pick up your favorite Sackboy/Marvel/Street Fighter costumes.

Hello again, LittleBigPlanet fans! I know you’re still busy playing the game, but here’s your chance to join the community to create a make.believe level for LittleBigPlanet 2… even if you don’t know your poppit from your wobble bolt!

Sony make.believe brings you “The LittleBigCreation,” which gives the community the chance to vote on every aspect of a new, custom-created make.believe level.

Here’s what you need to do to let your voice be heard:

Visit the Facebook.com/Sony page and click on the “Make Games” tab. Each week, you’ll be voting on design elements including genre, environment, characters, storyline, music and name. Each week, Sony make.believe will be giving away great prizes such as a PlayStation 3, PlayStation Move and more…just for voting! So make sure to come back to the Facebook.com/Sony page each week to get a glimpse of the level as it is being created and for more chances to win. If you are chosen as the Grand Prize winner, you’ll win a trip to this year’s E3 in Los Angeles.

And, of course, when the contest ends on March 31, you can download and play the make.believe level within LittleBigPlanet 2 to see just how Sony make.believe helped turn your ideas into reality.

Kick up the action in LittleBigPlanet with something from every sub-genre, including first-person shooters!

Are you waiting to dip into LittleBigPlanet's Community-made levels until one clear-cut champion of creativity and artistry breaks through? Well, Mr. Hoity-Toity, you should get ready to play the heck out of "Hansel & Gretelbot," a seven-level LittleBigPlanet 2 adventure coming from a collaboration between 12 of the community's most celebrated creators.

Check out a trailer for the fairy tale-centric project after the jump. It looks like it's got enough polish and charm to rival the quality of the game's pre-loaded levels. According to PlayStation Blog, the homebrewed adventure is "very nearly ready to launch" -- we'll let you know as soon as it does!

The Sackboys and Sackgirls at IGN sound off on the sequel.

If you're in love with the LittleBigPlanet universe from your head to your feet, it's time you donned some apparel representative of your admiration: The shoe artists at KyozoKicks have transformed a pair of Vans into a sticker-stuck canvas, inspired by Media Molecule's customizable PS3 platformers.